Lightroom presets — useful?
p.1 #1Lightroom presets — useful?
Hi all,
I’m interested in hearing your thoughts about Lightroom’s presets. I’ve recently found them reasonably useful with my new Nikon camera; in the past I preferred the colours I got SOOC from my Fuji X cameras. I’ll note at this point that Fuji’s Acros sim with a tweak of the white balance and some grain remains my favourite black and white setting of all, but that’s beside the point.
I have been mainly toying with the new film-inspired presets, particularly the ‘Warm Gold’ (I think it’s called), Warm B&W, and Soft Ember presets and finding them reasonably pleasing for portraits. My next steps after applying them tend to involve tweaking the white balance, exposure, and reducing the grain effect to taste.
I have three questions:
1) Do you find any of the stock Lightroom presets useful as starting points?
2) Do other programmes have any presets you enjoy?
3) Have you tried the expensive preset packs available online? Are they worth it in your opinion? (I like some of the demo pictures they use to advertise their results but struggle to imagine that the presets are worth the cost.)
I’m interested in hearing your thoughts about Lightroom’s presets. I’ve recently found them reasonably useful with my new Nikon camera; in the past I preferred the colours I got SOOC from my Fuji X cameras. I’ll note at this point that Fuji’s Acros sim with a tweak of the white balance and some grain remains my favourite black and white setting of all, but that’s beside the point.
I have been mainly toying with the new film-inspired presets, particularly the ‘Warm Gold’ (I think it’s called), Warm B&W, and Soft Ember presets and finding them reasonably pleasing for portraits. My next steps after applying them tend to involve tweaking the white balance, exposure, and reducing the grain effect to taste.
I have three questions:
1) Do you find any of the stock Lightroom presets useful as starting points?
2) Do other programmes have any presets you enjoy?
3) Have you tried the expensive preset packs available online? Are they worth it in your opinion? (I like some of the demo pictures they use to advertise their results but struggle to imagine that the presets are worth the cost.)
Aug 04, 2026 at 03:23 AM
p.1 #2Lightroom presets — useful?
It depends......
As I have become better at post processing, I use them less and less than I did 20yrs ago.
They can be useful if you are lost in the weeds and need a starting point. They quickly can give you lots of different looks- and can get you up and going. Maybe spark your juices a little.
Some of the film emulations are interesting, but imho most of the "expensive preset packs" are not that useful. I tried several many years ago- they never really worked for my images. You can spend an hour wiggling sliders and come up with dozens of your own presets. I found the money was better spent actually learning the program in question- lightroom, dxo, capture one, etc- than buying quick fix presets.
Just my opinion, yours may vary
gary
As I have become better at post processing, I use them less and less than I did 20yrs ago.
They can be useful if you are lost in the weeds and need a starting point. They quickly can give you lots of different looks- and can get you up and going. Maybe spark your juices a little.
Some of the film emulations are interesting, but imho most of the "expensive preset packs" are not that useful. I tried several many years ago- they never really worked for my images. You can spend an hour wiggling sliders and come up with dozens of your own presets. I found the money was better spent actually learning the program in question- lightroom, dxo, capture one, etc- than buying quick fix presets.
Just my opinion, yours may vary
gary
Aug 04, 2026 at 06:30 AM
p.1 #3Lightroom presets — useful?
I developed a couple several years back, but now only have one of them. Works for everything and I can do adjustments from the base if needed. It is the only one I use.
Aug 04, 2026 at 06:43 AM
RoamingScott
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p.1 #4Lightroom presets — useful?
I don't use their stock presets, nor have I ever found them particularly useful.
I use the hell out of camera matching profiles, though, and I make my own presets all the time by camera/lens combination. Preset packs are largely a waste of money because they were created on a totally different set of hardware than yours.
I use the hell out of camera matching profiles, though, and I make my own presets all the time by camera/lens combination. Preset packs are largely a waste of money because they were created on a totally different set of hardware than yours.
Aug 04, 2026 at 07:28 AM
p.1 #5Lightroom presets — useful?
Tried them, and even bought a couple of preset packs, but they never compared to a properly exposed and composed shot. A few years ago, it was all you saw on social media - all the faded, color washed shots on IG, FB and Flickr, but it got old fast. Nothing wrong with trying them if you have certain look you are after, but I would advise against buying the packs and just fine tune the ones you get for free if that's the route you want to go.
Aug 04, 2026 at 10:09 AM
p.1 #6Lightroom presets — useful?
I have tried quite a few, and to be honest I found 99.9% of them to be gimmicky, and not useful at all.
Much better to create your own
Much better to create your own
Aug 04, 2026 at 10:14 AM
p.1 #7Lightroom presets — useful?
You mention your Nikon camera, have you considered Nikon's NX Studio as an alternative to post processing?
It has lots of processing functionality and TBH it will render your NEF's far better than Lightroom as it accesses proprietary data that Adobe attempts to interpolate. You can also create custom profiles and upload them to your camera as presets while you shoot. It's free give it a try.
It has lots of processing functionality and TBH it will render your NEF's far better than Lightroom as it accesses proprietary data that Adobe attempts to interpolate. You can also create custom profiles and upload them to your camera as presets while you shoot. It's free give it a try.
Aug 04, 2026 at 11:59 AM
p.1 #8Lightroom presets — useful?
I have a couple of presets I created to achieve a particular look for certain types of events—and used them quite a bit. Now that I've retired, so have the presets.
Aug 04, 2026 at 06:01 PM
p.1 #9Lightroom presets — useful?
Thanks for your thoughts, everyone. I used to be a never presets person (though camera profiles were useful), and then I went through a SOOC-only phase for my personal and family shots; I don’t see myself doing any photography for work any time soon, as my duties are elsewhere at present. When my Z5II arrived I became interested in different ways of processing my images, and it happened to coincide with Adobe’s release of their new film presets, and I found the ones that I mentioned in the original post interesting enough that I wondered if I’d been missing out on a good thing.
Thanks for the suggestion of trying Nikon’s proprietary software. I hadn’t thought that it might be superior to Lightroom in image quality, but it makes sense that Nikon might understand its raw files better than anyone else. I guess I naively assumed that Nikon would have worked with Adobe on that so that it works well in Lightroom.
Thanks for the suggestion of trying Nikon’s proprietary software. I hadn’t thought that it might be superior to Lightroom in image quality, but it makes sense that Nikon might understand its raw files better than anyone else. I guess I naively assumed that Nikon would have worked with Adobe on that so that it works well in Lightroom.
Aug 05, 2026 at 04:26 AM
RoamingScott
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p.1 #10Lightroom presets — useful?
NX Studio is indeed quite powerful, and an overall better Nikon raw processor than Lightroom, but it’s slow and clunky and will require some patience getting used to.
Aug 05, 2026 at 09:36 AM
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p.1 #11Lightroom presets — useful?
Me personally, I find most presets not very inspiring or interesting, I prefer editing to a style. Since color consistency has also been mentioned, I will make a few comments interlacing both.
First is I think here CaptureOne is the best raw converter available. Next its color consistency is outstanding. Whether you want to match the manufacturer color very closely, or use C1 colors for consistency across brands and models, it’s really hard to beat at either. Next it also allows you to save a wide swath of adjustments as a unified style, that can be one-click applied to any image, or added to all upon import, and later easily removed or tweaked.
I abandoned the subscription earlier this year thinking I could live with Adobe raw plus PS. Now I am rethinking that and will probably reenlist my C1 subscription. I just really like its workflow and editing power. FWIW, my two cents.
First is I think here CaptureOne is the best raw converter available. Next its color consistency is outstanding. Whether you want to match the manufacturer color very closely, or use C1 colors for consistency across brands and models, it’s really hard to beat at either. Next it also allows you to save a wide swath of adjustments as a unified style, that can be one-click applied to any image, or added to all upon import, and later easily removed or tweaked.
I abandoned the subscription earlier this year thinking I could live with Adobe raw plus PS. Now I am rethinking that and will probably reenlist my C1 subscription. I just really like its workflow and editing power. FWIW, my two cents.
Aug 05, 2026 at 10:53 AM
p.1 #12Lightroom presets — useful?
RoamingScott wrote:
NX Studio is indeed quite powerful, and an overall better Nikon raw processor than Lightroom, but it’s slow and clunky and will require some patience getting used to.
That’s about what I expected, and why I’ve avoided it so far.
I still mean to give Nitro a go, but haven’t found the time. Adobe works well enough, and the thought that I might be photographing sports or theatre and culling hundreds of photos makes me keep the subscription, even though in the near future I think I’ll manage to avoid either. My baby keeps me busy enough!
NX Studio is indeed quite powerful, and an overall better Nikon raw processor than Lightroom, but it’s slow and clunky and will require some patience getting used to.
That’s about what I expected, and why I’ve avoided it so far.
I still mean to give Nitro a go, but haven’t found the time. Adobe works well enough, and the thought that I might be photographing sports or theatre and culling hundreds of photos makes me keep the subscription, even though in the near future I think I’ll manage to avoid either. My baby keeps me busy enough!
Aug 07, 2026 at 03:11 AM
p.1 #13Lightroom presets — useful?
Presets a static version of someone's impression of where to have each slider for a given photo. Most presets do not work on a lot of different images or scenes. Even B&W presets can look great for one scene and ridiculous for another. Same with Portrait ones.
They are nothing more than a starting point to explore with. However, Profiles in Lightroom is a better thing to take note of and use, as the slider maze is not even adjusted yet.
They are nothing more than a starting point to explore with. However, Profiles in Lightroom is a better thing to take note of and use, as the slider maze is not even adjusted yet.
Aug 08, 2026 at 08:42 AM
p.1 #15Lightroom presets — useful?
I used to use them a lot, but I found it changed how I approached editing and I lost my style in the process. Instead of editing the photo I was focused on scrolling through each preset I had to see which one fit which ended up wasting time.
Now I do my own colour grades.
Now I do my own colour grades.
Sep 05, 2026 at 03:52 PM
p.1 #16Lightroom presets — useful?
shinyobject wrote:
Hi all,
I’m interested in hearing your thoughts about Lightroom’s presets. I’ve recently found them reasonably useful with my new Nikon camera; in the past I preferred the colours I got SOOC from my Fuji X cameras. I’ll note at this point that Fuji’s Acros sim with a tweak of the white balance and some grain remains my favourite black and white setting of all, but that’s beside the point.
I have been mainly toying with the new film-inspired presets, particularly the ‘Warm Gold’ (I think it’s called), Warm B&W, and Soft Ember presets and finding them reasonably pleasing for...Show more →
I can only really respond to your first question.
I don't use the presets very often, but sometimes they are useful as a way to do a quick check on some alternative ways to interpret an image. (I never do this with color, since I know what I want, but I do it with monochrome from time to time.)
Ultimately, it doesn't matter much, however, whether the rest of us find them useful. They are there, you can try them, and if YOU find them useful you should go ahead and see what you can do with them.
Edited on Sep 06, 2026 at 08:13 PM · View previous versions
Hi all,
I’m interested in hearing your thoughts about Lightroom’s presets. I’ve recently found them reasonably useful with my new Nikon camera; in the past I preferred the colours I got SOOC from my Fuji X cameras. I’ll note at this point that Fuji’s Acros sim with a tweak of the white balance and some grain remains my favourite black and white setting of all, but that’s beside the point.
I have been mainly toying with the new film-inspired presets, particularly the ‘Warm Gold’ (I think it’s called), Warm B&W, and Soft Ember presets and finding them reasonably pleasing for...Show more →
I can only really respond to your first question.
I don't use the presets very often, but sometimes they are useful as a way to do a quick check on some alternative ways to interpret an image. (I never do this with color, since I know what I want, but I do it with monochrome from time to time.)
Ultimately, it doesn't matter much, however, whether the rest of us find them useful. They are there, you can try them, and if YOU find them useful you should go ahead and see what you can do with them.
Edited on Sep 06, 2026 at 08:13 PM · View previous versions
Sep 05, 2026 at 10:34 PM
p.1 #17Lightroom presets — useful?
Presets are just aesthetic gimmicks. They homogenize your images to all follow the same stylized recipe. Presets are rarely applicable to images shot on different cameras under varying conditions. It is painfully obvious when someone blindly applies unnatural looking presets to their images.
Profiles are a much more powerful and direct method of color control. They are specific to your particular camera sensor and map the color and luminance responses unique to a given sensor. If you want to take control of your color, create your own custom camera profiles as your default and build from there.
Presets are just pushing sliders around on a JPEG. Profiles are mathematical maps from raw data.
Profiles are a much more powerful and direct method of color control. They are specific to your particular camera sensor and map the color and luminance responses unique to a given sensor. If you want to take control of your color, create your own custom camera profiles as your default and build from there.
Presets are just pushing sliders around on a JPEG. Profiles are mathematical maps from raw data.
Sep 06, 2026 at 12:27 PM
p.1 #18Lightroom presets — useful?
jeffbuzz wrote:
Presets are just aesthetic gimmicks. They homogenize your images to all follow the same stylized recipe. Presets are rarely applicable to images shot on different cameras under varying conditions. It is painfully obvious when someone blindly applies unnatural looking presets to their images.
Profiles are a much more powerful and direct method of color control. They are specific to your particular camera sensor and map the color and luminance responses unique to a given sensor. If you want to take control of your color, create your own custom camera profiles as your default and build from there.
Presets are just pushing sliders...Show more →
Profiles and presets are pretty different things and used for very different purposes.
Profiles are typically used to ensure that colors are accurate and consistent. Presets are used to apply specific color (and other parameters) settings to give your image a particular “look.”
While I prefer to not use presets except in rare cases as described above — I’d rather adjust each image in post to get the look I want. However, there are some photographers who are happy with the results of using presets. It is more of a preference issue than a moral one.
Presets are just aesthetic gimmicks. They homogenize your images to all follow the same stylized recipe. Presets are rarely applicable to images shot on different cameras under varying conditions. It is painfully obvious when someone blindly applies unnatural looking presets to their images.
Profiles are a much more powerful and direct method of color control. They are specific to your particular camera sensor and map the color and luminance responses unique to a given sensor. If you want to take control of your color, create your own custom camera profiles as your default and build from there.
Presets are just pushing sliders...Show more →
Profiles and presets are pretty different things and used for very different purposes.
Profiles are typically used to ensure that colors are accurate and consistent. Presets are used to apply specific color (and other parameters) settings to give your image a particular “look.”
While I prefer to not use presets except in rare cases as described above — I’d rather adjust each image in post to get the look I want. However, there are some photographers who are happy with the results of using presets. It is more of a preference issue than a moral one.
Sep 06, 2026 at 08:19 PM
p.1 #19Lightroom presets — useful?
shinyobject wrote:
Hi all,
I’m interested in hearing your thoughts about Lightroom’s presets. I’ve recently found them reasonably useful with my new Nikon camera; in the past I preferred the colours I got SOOC from my Fuji X cameras. I’ll note at this point that Fuji’s Acros sim with a tweak of the white balance and some grain remains my favourite black and white setting of all, but that’s beside the point.
I have been mainly toying with the new film-inspired presets, particularly the ‘Warm Gold’ (I think it’s called), Warm B&W, and Soft Ember presets and finding them reasonably pleasing for...Show more →
1. I don't use Lightroom instead use Photoshop. I don't use their presets much but sometimes I like using their film-inspired profiles.
2 and 3: 100%. I love using some of the presets that I bought from Julia Trotti (she's one of my fave portrait photographers), Kelvin Designs and Nord Studios. From the latter I bought some cinematic themed presets (I saw their sample taken in Singapore which I've been to lately so I want some of that). Also, they have Wes Anderson (don't know who that is but I like his colours) inspired presets and the Kodak. I have the DXO Film Pack 8 as well but I am not impressed by their Kodak Portra rendering so I bought the Nord and pretty happy with it.
SONY ILCE-7M5
1/30s f/5.6 at 28.0mm iso2500
FujiFilm X100VI
1/320s f/2.0 at 23.0mm iso100
SONY ILCE-7M5
1/1250s f/2.8 at 28.6mm iso100
SONY ILCE-7M5
1/2500s f/2.8 at 28.0mm iso100
Hi all,
I’m interested in hearing your thoughts about Lightroom’s presets. I’ve recently found them reasonably useful with my new Nikon camera; in the past I preferred the colours I got SOOC from my Fuji X cameras. I’ll note at this point that Fuji’s Acros sim with a tweak of the white balance and some grain remains my favourite black and white setting of all, but that’s beside the point.
I have been mainly toying with the new film-inspired presets, particularly the ‘Warm Gold’ (I think it’s called), Warm B&W, and Soft Ember presets and finding them reasonably pleasing for...Show more →
1. I don't use Lightroom instead use Photoshop. I don't use their presets much but sometimes I like using their film-inspired profiles.
2 and 3: 100%. I love using some of the presets that I bought from Julia Trotti (she's one of my fave portrait photographers), Kelvin Designs and Nord Studios. From the latter I bought some cinematic themed presets (I saw their sample taken in Singapore which I've been to lately so I want some of that). Also, they have Wes Anderson (don't know who that is but I like his colours) inspired presets and the Kodak. I have the DXO Film Pack 8 as well but I am not impressed by their Kodak Portra rendering so I bought the Nord and pretty happy with it.
SONY ILCE-7M5
1/30s f/5.6 at 28.0mm iso2500
FujiFilm X100VI
1/320s f/2.0 at 23.0mm iso100
SONY ILCE-7M5
1/1250s f/2.8 at 28.6mm iso100
SONY ILCE-7M5
1/2500s f/2.8 at 28.0mm iso100
Sep 07, 2026 at 09:21 AM
p.1 #20Lightroom presets — useful?
I guess some people find them useful, I prefer to just edit my images individually from scratch in LR
Sep 07, 2026 at 10:27 AM